San Francisco (Obama.net) – The prison system in the United States of America has been the subject of much criticism over the years. Some have argued that the inmates in American prisons have access to too many luxuries, such as television, music, and other recreational activities. Others claim that the inmates have too much access to the outside world via guests and phone calls. Essentially, many people feel that American prisons do not serve their purpose to the fullest when it comes to punishing the men and women in return for their crimes against society.
President Obama saw an even greater issue arising out of some of the luxuries made available to felons in the American prison system. That issue had to do with the allowance of prisoners to use cellular phones while imprisoned.
In an effort to keep prisoners from organizing crimes while still in prison, Obama signed a bill on Tuesday that changes the rules on cell phone use for inmates.
A total of 3,200 cell phones were found in American prisons last year by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Reports indicate that cell phones in prison can go for anywhere from five hundred dollars, to one thousand dollars due to their potential use for criminal activity.
The new law completely and totally disallows any prisoners to either have or use a cell phone. To boost the strength of the law, anyone who attempts to get a cell phone to a prisoner would be up for one year of a prison sentence himself or herself for the act.
With the new law, Diane Feinstein, the Senator of California, said that “prison gangs will no longer be able to use cell phones to direct criminal attacks on individuals, to decide territory for the distribution of drugs, or conduct credit card fraud.”
In order to make sure that the new law is effective, Obama included in the bill that after one year of going into effect, a new study would take place in order to determine whether or not the new law is in fact decreasing the crime rate.
Inmates do not need cell phones oe computers. I was CO in a max and close prison. One thing I learned is that inmated lie,lie,lie.
I disagree with James because Correctional Officers go way further that what they need to. Ive wittiness incidents where excessive force was used on an inmate who was speaking up for what is right. Two, they want to ban cell phones from inmates but what happens to the men and women Correctional Officers that bring in the cell phones, CONTRABAND, and other illegal substances. Along with with other staff members. You cant really say the the people behind the prison walls are the only criminals. President Obama needs to address this as well. There is no punishment for the officers or staff who commit these crimes but loosing their jobs. We as society would love to point the finger and blame but we do not take control of a situation. We just pretend that we have it under control so it looks good for society.We have criminals locked up but we also have criminals supervising them.
What they need to do is stop corporations like Global Tel Link from price gouging. Prisoners should be able to call their families at a reasonable price, not something ridiculous like 25 cents per minute. Another issue is the fact that those who do manage to get a job whilst imprisoned get a salary of about 25 cents an hour. If that is not inhumane I don’t know what is, and please don’t give me the “they’re prisoners that’s the way it should be” argument; a prisoner is still a human being. If Obama is going to crack down on prison issues he needs to take a look at what’s most important like crooked cops who put innocent people behind bars just to save their own from being convicted…that seems to be the trend lately among local authorities.